theatre review

An Audience With John Smeaton

Chairman Arnold Brown

This is the way the world ends: not with a bang, but with 'An Audience With John Smeaton'. The sweaty, shit-stained hands of The Sun newspaper are behind this one, with Arnold Brown (a now doddering comedian looking perilously ready for the glue farm) interviewing John Smeaton, the baggage handler who earned his fifteen minutes of fame by kicking a terrorist at Glasgow Airport. Smeaton is honest and likeable, but this was an excruciating experience, like watching pop culture trying to sodomise and eat itself at the same time. This is the abyss of our civilisation: Z-list celebrities dancing to a tabloid tune whilst the idle crowd looks on, their empty lives rotting away even as they sit and stare indifferently.

Assembly @ George Street, 17 - 30 Aug (not 24), 11.25pm, £12.00 (£11.00), fpp 181

tw rating: 1/5

published: Sep-2009

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